The invention relates to a plant for producing foodstuffs, in particular a chocolate plant, comprising at least two sections, with the foodstuffs in the sections preferably being processable and/or conveyable in product carriers.
The chocolate plants known from the state of the art are always built as entire plants comprising various sections, e.g. mold changing sections, warming-up sections, refrigeration sections and mold release sections. The known plants are tailor-made for a particular purpose, e.g. for producing Advent calendars, for producing chocolate bars or similar products. As a rule, reconfiguring the known plant from a plant for producing Advent calendars to a plant for producing chocolate bars is expensive, and sometimes even impossible. However, due to their special design, the known chocolate plants achieve high rates of throughput when producing those products for which a particular plant is tailor-made.
A problem of the known chocolate plants is that their purchase is only justified if the products produced can be sold in large batches. This is problematic, in particular, when a new product is introduced in the market, since, in the case of chocolate plants known from the state of the art, a new chocolate plant has to be invested in, without the market success of the new product being foreseeable, because existing chocolate plants cannot be reconfigured economically. Thus the introduction of new products is associated with a relatively high economic risk. Furthermore, nowadays a good market exists for individual products made in small batches and for seasonal products. In either case a chocolate plant specifically bought for the respective product becomes profitable only after a relatively extended period of use.
Based on the above-mentioned problems, it is the object of the invention to provide a plant for producing foodstuffs, in particular a chocolate plant, which ensures flexible production of usually small batches of various products.